Homeland Security: Managing First Responder Grants to Enhance	 
Emergency Preparedness in the National Capital Region (14-JUL-05,
GAO-05-889T).							 
                                                                 
After the tragic events of September 11, 2001, the National	 
Capital Region (NCR)--the District of Columbia and nearby	 
jurisdictions in Maryland and Virginia--was recognized as a	 
significant potential target for terrorism. In fiscal years 2002 
and 2003, about $340 million in emergency preparedness funds were
allocated to NCR jurisdictions. In May 2004, GAO issued a report 
(GAO-04-433) that examined (1) the use of federal funds emergency
preparedness funds allocated to NCR jurisdictions, (2) the	 
challenges within the NCR to organizing and implementing	 
efficient and effective preparedness programs, (3) any emergency 
preparedness gaps that remain in the NCR, and (4) the Department 
of Homeland Security's (DHS) role in the NCR. The report made	 
recommendations to the Secretary of DHS to enhance the management
of first responder grants in the NCR. We also reported in	 
September 2004 (GAO-04-1009) that the NCR's Governance Structure 
for the Urban Area Security Initiative could facilitate 	 
collaborative, coordinated, and planned management and use of	 
federal funds for enhancing emergency preparedness, if		 
implemented as planned DHS agreed to implement these		 
recommendations.						 
-------------------------Indexing Terms------------------------- 
REPORTNUM:   GAO-05-889T					        
    ACCNO:   A29917						        
  TITLE:     Homeland Security: Managing First Responder Grants to    
Enhance Emergency Preparedness in the National Capital Region	 
     DATE:   07/14/2005 
  SUBJECT:   Emergency preparedness				 
	     Federal aid to localities				 
	     Federal funds					 
	     Federal grants					 
	     Federal/state relations				 
	     First responders					 
	     Homeland security					 
	     Intergovernmental relations			 
	     Performance measures				 
	     Regional planning					 
	     Standards						 
	     Strategic planning 				 
	     Terrorism						 
	     Counterterrorism					 
	     Emergency Management Accreditation 		 
	     Program						 
                                                                 
	     Urban Area Security Initiative			 

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GAO-05-889T

United States Government Accountability Office

GAO Testimony

Before the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal
Workforce, and the District of Columbia of the Committee on Homeland
Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate

For Release on Delivery

Expected at 9:30 a.m. EDT HOMELAND SECURITY

Thursday, July 14, 2005

    Managing First Responder Grants to Enhance Emergency Preparedness in the
                            National Capital Region

Statement of William O. Jenkins, Jr.
Director, Homeland Security and Justice Issues

GAO-05-889T

[IMG]

July 14, 2005

HOMELAND SECURITY

Managing First Responder Grants to Enhance Emergency Preparedness in the
National Capital Region

  What GAO Found

A coordinated, targeted, and complementary use of federal homeland
security grants is important in the NCR and elsewhere. These grants are
one means of achieving an important goal: enhancing the ability of first
responders to prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from terrorist
and other incidents with well-planned, well-coordinated, and effective
efforts that involve a variety of first responders from multiple
jurisdictions. To oversee and coordinate federal emergency preparedness
programs among federal, state, local, and regional authorities in the NCR,
the Homeland Security Act established the Office for National Capital
Region Coordination (ONCRC) within DHS. The ongoing security risk requires
a comprehensive, coordinated, and carefully planned approach to the
expenditure of federal first responder grants. This requires a NCR-wide
strategic plan, performance goals, an assessment of preparedness gaps to
guide priority setting, and continuing assessments of the progress made in
closing identified gaps

This testimony summarizes our prior work and provides information on the
implementation of the three recommendations in our May 2004 report. First,
we recommended that DHS work with the NCR jurisdictions to develop a
coordinated strategic plan. DHS and NCR jurisdictions have completed a
final draft for review that has been circulated to key stakeholders.
Second, we recommended that DHS monitor's the plans implementation, which
must await a final plan. To implement and monitor the future plan, data
will be needed regarding the funding available and used for implementing
the plan and enhancing first responder capabilities in the NCR-data that
is not currently routinely available. The NCR, through the District of
Columbia's Office of Homeland Security, has a system for tracking the use
of Urban Area Security Initiative funds in the NCR as well as other
homeland security grant funds available to Washington, D.C. However, the
NCR does not currently track non-Urban Area Security Initiative funds
available to and used by other NCR jurisdictions in an automated, uniform
way. Rather, it obtains information about those funds through a variety of
means, including teleconferences involving senior emergency preparedness
officials. Third, we recommended that DHS identify and address
preparedness gaps and evaluate the effectiveness of expenditures by
conducting assessments based on established guidelines and standards. No
systematic gap analysis has been completed for the region; however, by
March 2006, the NCR plans to complete an effort to use the Emergency
Management Accreditation Program (EMAP) as a means of conducting a gap
analysis and assess NCR jurisdictions against EMAP's national preparedness
standards. The result would be a report on the NCR's compliance with EMAP
standards for emergency preparedness and an analysis of areas needing
improvement to address in the short-and long-term. The ONCRC has not
determined how this effort would be integrated with DHS'
capabilities-based planning and assessments for first responders, pending
the issuance of DHS` final version of the National Preparedness Goal in
October 2005.

                 United States Government Accountability Office

  Summary

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:

I appreciate the opportunity to participate in today's hearing on efforts
to use federal first responder grants to effectively enhance emergency
preparedness in the National Capital Region (NCR). We reported on this
issue twice in 2004 and testified before the House Committee on Government
Reform on this topic in June 2004.1 My statement today highlights the
major findings and recommendations of our prior work and provides some
updated information on the status of efforts by NCR jurisdictions and the
Department of Homeland Security's Office for National Capital Region
Coordination (ONCRC) to implement our recommendations.

A coordinated, targeted, and complementary use of federal homeland
security grants is important in the NCR. These grants are one means of
achieving an important goal: enhancing the ability of first responders to
prevent where possible, prepare for, respond to, and recover from
terrorist and other incidents with well-planned, well-coordinated, and
effective efforts that involve a variety of first responders from multiple
jurisdictions.

The Office of National Capital Region Coordinator (ONCRC) was created by
the Homeland Security Act. 2 It is responsible for coordinating federal,
state, and local efforts to secure the homeland in the NCR and for
assessing and advocating for the state, local, and regional resources in
the NCR needed to implement efforts to secure the homeland.

In May 2004, we reported that ONCRC and the NCR faced three interrelated
challenges in managing federal funds in a way that maximizes the increase
in first responder capacities and preparedness while minimizing
inefficiency and unnecessary duplication of expenditures. These challenges
included the lack of (1) preparedness standards; (2) a coordinated
regionwide plan for establishing first responder performance

1 Homeland Security: Management of First Responder Grants in the National
Capital Region Reflects the Need for Coordinated Planning and Performance
Goals, GAO-04-433, (Washington, D.C.: May 28, 2004); Homeland Security:
Effective Regional Coordination Can Enhance Emergency Preparedness,
GAO-04-1009 (Sept. 15, 2004); and Homeland Security: Coordinated Planning
and Standards Needed to Better Manage First Responder Grants in the
National Capital Region, GAO-04-904T, June 24, 2004).

2P.L. 107-296 S:882

goals, needs, and priorities, and assessing the benefits of expenditures
in enhancing first responder capabilities; and (3) a readily available,
reliable source of data on the funds available to first responders in the
NCR and their use. Without the standards, a regionwide plan, and data on
spending, it will be extremely difficult to determine whether NCR first
responders have the ability to respond to threats and emergencies with
well-planned, well-coordinated, and effective efforts that involve a
variety of first responder disciplines from NCR jurisdictions.

Our May 2004 report made three recommendations to the Secretary of the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which the Department agreed to
implement. Some progress has been made in implementing these
recommendations, but none has yet been fully implemented:

o  Recommendation 1: Work with the NCR jurisdictions to develop a
coordinated strategic plan to establish goals and priorities to enhance
first responder capacities that can be used to guide the use of federal
emergency preparedness funds.

o  Actions taken: According to a DHS ONCRC official, a final draft for
review has been completed and circulated to key stakeholders. According to
the Director, ONCRC, the plan will feature measurable goals, objectives,
and performance measures.

o  Recommendation 2: Monitor the plan's implementation to ensure that
funds are used in a way that promotes effective expenditures that are not
unnecessarily duplicative.

o  Actions taken: This recommendation cannot be implemented until the
final strategic plan is in place. Importantly, to establish regional
priorities and track progress in implementing the plan, data will be
needed regarding the funding for and use of all first-responder grants
available to NCR jurisdictions. The NCR, through the District of
Columbia's Office of Homeland Security, has a system for tracking the use
of UASI funds for the NCR and other homeland security grant funds
allocated to Washington, D.C., such as the State Homeland Security Grants.
However, at this time, it does not have an automated, uniform system to
track non-UASI grant funds available and used by other NCR jurisdictions.
Instead, the Office obtains information through a variety of means,
including teleconferences involving senior emergency preparedness
officials. The ONCRC recognizes the need to develop a more systematic
means of capturing all homeland security grant funds available to and used
through the NCR and its member jurisdictions.

o

Background

Recommendation 3: Identify and address gaps in emergency preparedness and
evaluate the effectiveness of expenditures in meeting those needs by
adapting standards and preparedness guidelines based on likely scenarios
for the NCR and conducting assessments based on them.

o  Actions taken: No systematic gap analysis has been completed for the
region as a whole. However, by March 2006, the NCR plans to complete an
effort to use the Emergency Management Accreditation Program (EMAP) as a
means of conducting a gap analysis and assessing NCR jurisdictions against
EMAP's national preparedness standards. The result would be a report on
the NCR's compliance with EMAP standards for emergency preparedness and an
analysis of areas needing improvement that can be addressed in the
short-and longterm. How this effort would be integrated with DHS'
capabilities-based planning and assessments for first responders has not
yet been determined, pending the issuance of DHS' final version of the
National Preparedness Goal in October 2005.

The NCR now has a UASI governance structure that could provide the
regionwide coordination that is necessary for obtaining information and
the consensus or acquiescence of many stakeholders for drafting,
completing, and implementing a regional preparedness plan. We believe that
completing the implementation of the recommendations in our May 2004
report would be a major step toward developing the structure, processes,
and data needed to assess current first responder skills and capabilities
in the NCR and monitor the success of efforts to close identified gaps and
achieve designated performance goals for the NCR.

Since the September 11, 2001, attacks, the federal government, state and
local governments, and a range of independent research organizations have
agreed on the need for a coordinated intergovernmental approach for
allocating the nation's resources to address the threat of terrorism and
improve our security. The National Strategy for Homeland Security,
released in 2002 following the proposal for DHS, emphasized a shared
national responsibility for security involving close cooperation among all
levels of government and acknowledged the complexity of developing a
coordinated approach within our federal system of government and among a
broad range of organizations and institutions involved in homeland
security. The national strategy highlighted the challenge of developing
complementary systems that avoid unintended duplication and increase
collaboration and coordination so that public and private resources are
better aligned for homeland security.

  The Role of DHS' Office of National Capital Region Coordination in Enhancing
  Regional Preparednedness

The national strategy established a framework for this approach by
identifying critical mission areas with intergovernmental initiatives in
each area. For example, the strategy identified such initiatives as
modifying federal grant requirements and consolidating funding sources to
state and local governments. The strategy further recognized the
importance of assessing the capability of state and local governments,
developing plans, and establishing standards and performance measures to
achieve national preparedness goals. In addition, many aspects of DHS'
success depend on its maintaining and enhancing working relationships
within the intergovernmental system as it relies on state and local
governments to accomplish its mission. In our view, intergovernmental and
interjurisdictional coordination in managing federal first-responder
grants is as important in the NCR as it is anywhere in the nation.

As noted in our May 2004 report and June 2004 testimony, the creation of
DHS was an initial step toward reorganizing the federal government to
respond to some of the intergovernmental challenges identified in the
National Strategy for Homeland Security. ONCRC was created by the Homeland
Security Act. According to NCR emergency management officials we contacted
during the time of our previous reviews, ONCRC could play a potentially
important role in assisting them to implement a coordinated, well planned
effort in using federal resources to improve the region's preparedness. As
we stated in the past, meeting the office's statutory mandate would
fulfill those key responsibilities.

The Homeland Security Act established ONCRC within DHS to oversee and
coordinate federal programs for, and relationships with federal, state,
local, and regional authorities in the NCR.3 The ONCRC's responsibilities
are primarily ones of coordination, assessment, and advocacy. With regard
to coordination, the ONCRC was mandated to:

o  coordinate the activities of DHS relating to the NCR, including
cooperation with the DHS' Office for State and Local Government
Coordination;

o  coordinate with federal agencies in the NCR on terrorism preparedness
to ensure adequate planning, information sharing, training, and execution
of the federal role in domestic preparedness activities;

o  coordinate with federal, state, local, and regional agencies and the
private sector in NCR on terrorism preparedness to ensure adequate
planning,

3P.L. 107-296 S:882

information sharing, training, and execution of domestic preparedness
activities among these agencies and entities;

o  serve as a liaison between the federal government and state, local, and
regional authorities, and private sector entities in the NCR to facilitate
access to federal grants and other programs.4

ONCRC also has responsibilities related to resource and needs assessments
and advocating for needed resources in the NCR, including:

o  assessing and advocating for resources needed by state, local, and
regional authorities in the NCR to implement efforts to secure the
homeland; and

o  submitting an annual report to Congress that (1) identifies resources
required to fully implement homeland security efforts in the NCR, (2)
assesses progress in implementing homeland security efforts in the NCR,
and (3) includes recommendations to Congress regarding additional
resources needed to fully implement homeland security efforts in the NCR.
(According to the ONCRC, the first annual report is now with the Office of
Management and Budget for review).

We recognize that ONCRC's missions and tasks are not easy. The overall job
of promoting domestic preparedness in a large area with a huge federal
presence is daunting. The NCR is a complex multijurisdictional area
comprising the District of Columbia and surrounding county and city
jurisdictions in Maryland and Virginia. Coordination within this region
presents the challenge of working with numerous jurisdictions that vary in
size, political organization, and experience in managing large
emergencies.

As we noted in our May 2004 report on the management of funds in the NCR,
effectively managing first responder grant funds requires the ability to
measure progress and provide accountability for the use of the funds. To
do this, it is necessary to:

1. Develop and implement strategies for the use of the funds that identify
key goals and priorities;

2. Establish performance baselines;

4The Office for National Capital Region Coordination was also mandated to
provide state, local, and regional authorities in NCR with regular
information, research, and technical support to assist the efforts of
state, local, and regional authorities in NCR in securing the homeland;
and develop a process for receiving meaningful input from state, local,
and regional authorities and the private sector in NCR to assist in the
development of the federal government's homeland security plans and
activities.

3. Develop and implement performance goals and data quality standards;

4. Collect reliable data;

5. Analyze those data;

6. Assess the results of that analysis;

7. Take action based on those results; and

8. Monitor the effectiveness of actions taken to achieve the designated
performance goals.

This strategic approach to homeland security includes identifying threats
and managing risks, aligning resources to address them, and assessing
progress in preparing for those threats and risks.

At the same time, it is important to recognize that the equipment, skills,
and training required to prepare for and respond to identified terrorist
threats and risks may be applicable to non-terrorist risks as well. For
example, the equipment, skills, and training required to respond
effectively to a discharge of lethal chlorine gas from a rail car is much
the same whether the cause of the discharge is an accidental derailment or
a terrorist act.

  Our May 2004 Report Showed the Need to Improve Management of First-Responder
  Grants in the NCR

As we reported in May 2004, in fiscal years 2002 and 2003, the Departments
of Homeland Security, Justice, and Health and Human Services awarded about
$340 million through 16 first-responder grants to NCR jurisdictions to
enhance regional emergency preparedness. Of these funds, $60.5 million
were from the UASI grant, designated for regionwide needs. The remaining
funds, about $279.5 million, were available to local jurisdictions for a
wide variety of needs, such as equipment and training, and local
jurisdictions determined how these funds were to be spent. Local
jurisdictions used or planned to use money from those grants to buy
equipment and to implement training and exercises for the area's first
responders, as well as improve planning for responding to a terrorist
event. We have not reviewed how funds were spent since the issuance of our
May 2004 report; however, spending could not be based on a coordinated
plan for enhancing regional first responder capacities and preparedness
because such a plan does not yet exist, although one is being prepared.

In May 2004, we reported that ONCRC and the NCR faced 3 interrelated
challenges in managing federal funds in a way that maximizes the increase
in first responder capacities and preparedness while minimizing
inefficiency and unnecessary duplication of expenditures. These were the
lack of (1) preparedness standards; (2) a coordinated regionwide plan for
establishing first responder performance goals, needs, and priorities, and
assessing the benefits of expenditures; and (3) readily available,
reliable source of data on the federal grant funds available to first
responders in the NCR and their use. Without the standards, a regionwide
plan, and data on available funds and spending, it will be extremely
difficult to determine whether NCR first responders have the ability to
respond to threats and emergencies with well-planned, well-coordinated,
and effective efforts that involve a variety of first responder
disciplines from NCR jurisdictions. Moreover, without such data, it is not
clear how the ONCRC can fulfill its statutory mandate to assess and
advocate for resources needed by state, local, and regional authorities in
the NCR to implement efforts to secure the homeland.

During our review we could identify no reliable data on preparedness gaps
in the NCR, which of those gaps were most important, and the status of
efforts to close those gaps. The baseline data needed to assess those gaps
had not been fully developed or made available on a NCR-wide basis. We
also noted that at the time our May 2004 report was released, DHS and
ONCRC appear to have had a limited role in assessing and analyzing first
responder needs in NCR and developing a coordinated effort to address
those needs through the use of federal grant funds. ONCRC has focused
principally on developing a plan for using the UASI funds-funds that were
intended principally for addressing region wide needs. In its comments on
a draft of our May 2004 report, DHS said that a governance structure
approved in February 2004 would accomplish essential regionwide
coordination. We agree that this structure has the potential to accomplish
essential regionwide coordination, but it is not clear how it can do so
effectively without comprehensive data on funds available for enhancing
first responder skills and capabilities in the NCR, their use, and their
effect on meeting identified performance goals.

  Recommendations in Our May 2004 Report Not Yet Fully Implemented

To help ensure that emergency preparedness grants and associated funds are
managed in a way that maximizes their effectiveness, our May 2004 report
included three recommendations to the Secretary of the Department of
Homeland Security. As discussed in more detail below, some progress has
been made in implementing these recommendations, but none has yet been
fully implemented.

o  Recommendation 1: Work with the NCR jurisdictions to develop a
coordinated strategic plan to establish goals and priorities for enhancing
first responder capacities that can be used to guide the use of federal
emergency preparedness funds.

o  Actions taken: According to an ONCRC official, a final draft for review
has been circulated to key stakeholders. According to the Director, ONCRC,
the plan will feature measurable goals, objectives, and performance
measures.

o  Recommendation 2: Monitor the strategic plan's implementation to ensure
that funds are used in a way that promotes effective expenditures that are
not unnecessarily duplicative.

o  Actions taken: Monitoring implementation of the strategic plan cannot
be accomplished absent a plan. Importantly, to monitor the plan's
implementation, data will be needed on funds available and spending from
all first responder grants available to jurisdictions in the NCR, such as
the State Homeland Security Grant Program. The NCR, through the D.C.
Office of Homeland Security, has a system for tracking the use of UASI
funds in the NCR and other homeland security grant funds available to
D.C., such as the State Homeland Security Grants. However, at this time,
it does not have an automated, uniform, system to track non-UASI grant
funds available and used by other NCR jurisdictions. Information on the
projects funded in NCR jurisdictions by funds other than UASI is obtained
through the monthly meetings and weekly conference calls of the Senior
Policy Group and full-day quarterly meetings of jurisdictions in the
Mid-Atlantic area, sponsored by the Office of Domestic Preparedness (ODP).
These meetings provide contacts for obtaining information, as needed, on
grant allocations and expenditures in jurisdictions both within and
outside the NCR in the mid-Atlantic region. The ONCRC recognizes the need
to develop a more systematic means of capturing all homeland security
grant funds available and used through the NCR.

o  Recommendation 3: Identify and address gaps in emergency preparedness
and evaluate the effectiveness of expenditures in meeting those needs by
adopting standards and preparedness guidelines based on likely scenarios
for NCR and conducting assessments based on them.

o  Actions taken: To date, no systematic gap analysis has been completed
for the region as a whole. The NCR plans to use the Emergency Management
Accreditation Program (EMAP) as a means of conducting a gap analysis and
assessing NCR jurisdictions against EMAP's standards for emergency
preparedness-an effort expected to be completed by March 2006. How this
effort would be integrated with DHS' capabilities-based planning and
assessments for first responders has not yet been determined, pending the
issuance of DHS' final version of the National Preparedness Goal in
October 2005.

At the national level, DHS' efforts to develop policies, guidance, and
standards that can be used to assess and develop first responder skills
and capabilities have included three policy initiatives: (1) a national
response plan (what needs to be done to manage a major emergency event);
(2) a command and management process-the National Incident Management
System-to be used during any emergency event nation-wide (how to do what
needs to be done); and (3) a national preparedness goal (how well it
should be done). Since our May 2004 report, DHS, as part of developing the
national preparedness goal, developed 15 scenarios (12 terrorist events, a
flu pandemic, a hurricane, and an earthquake) of "national significance"
that would require coordinated federal, state, and local response efforts;
the critical tasks associated with these scenarios; and the
capabilities-in terms of planning, training, equipment, and exercises-that
first responders would need to develop and maintain to effectively prepare
for and respond to major emergency events. The 300 critical tasks and 36
capabilities were intended as benchmarks first responders could use to
assess their relative level of preparedness and capacity to prevent,
mitigate, respond to, and recover from major emergency events, including
terrorist attacks. Because no single jurisdiction or agency would be
expected to perform every task, possession of a target capability could
involve enhancing and maintaining local resources, ensuring access to
regional and federal resources, or some combination of the two.

The January 25, 2005 proposal for the EMAP assessment program does suggest
one way in which the NCR may include the DHS scenarios, critical tasks,
and capabilities in the EMAP assessment project. The proposal states:
"Should the NCR or local jurisdictions within the region desire to conduct
(a) hazard identification, risk assessment, and impact analysis
activities, and/or (b) capabilities assessment against catastrophic
scenarios using federally provided technical assistance during the period
of this project, EMAP representatives will coordinate

  Concluding
  Comments

with local and regional personnel to ensure that assessment activities and
products are complementary."

The need for comprehensive, coordinated emergency planning and
preparedness is important in the National Capital Region. As we noted in
the recent past, the ongoing security risk to the NCR requires a
comprehensive, coordinated, and carefully planned approach to the
expenditure of federal first responder grants. This requires a regionwide
strategic plan, performance goals, an assessment of preparedness gaps to
guide priority setting, and continuing assessments of the progress made in
closing identified gaps. The NCR has completed a draft strategic plan and
has established a process for assessing existing preparedness gaps. But it
still needs to develop a means of routinely obtaining reliable data on all
funds available for enhancing emergency preparedness in the NCR and their
uses. It is important to know how all first responder funds are being
spent in the NCR for setting priorities and assessing the results of funds
spent. The NCR has selected the EMAP emergency preparedness standards as
its performance standards for the region, but it will be necessary to
integrate the EMAP standards with the set of 36 performance capabilities
for first responders that DHS has developed as part of its National
Performance Goal.

The NCR, in common with jurisdictions across the nation, faces the
challenge of implementing DHS requirements for its three key policy
initiatives-the National Incident Management System, National Response
Plan, and the National Preparedness Goal. Successfully accomplishing all
of these things will require a sound strategic plan; effective
coordination; perseverance; and reliable data on available funds, their
use, and the results achieved. As we noted in our September 2004 report,
the NCR's UASI Governance Structure represents a positive step towards
instituting a collaborative, multijurisdictional, regionwide, planning
structure. Fully implementing the recommendations in our May 2004 report
would, in our view, be a major step toward developing the structure,
processes, and data needed to assess current first responder skills and
capabilities in the NCR and monitor the success of efforts to close
identified gaps and achieve designated performance goals for the NCR.

That concludes my statement, Mr. Chairman. I would be pleased to respond
to any questions you or other members of the Committee may have.

Contacts andFor questions regarding this testimony please contact William
O. Jenkins, Jr. on (202) 512-8777. Ernie Hazera also made key
contributions to this

  Acknowledgments testimony.

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